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TICKETMASTER / RESALE
Ticketmaster Resale helps fans sell tickets when their plans change, but traditional marketplace listings don't always offer the flexibility or certainty they need. From resale restrictions to uncertainty around finding a buyer, the experience presented opportunities to give fans more choice and control.
I worked across the resale experience, helping introduce Sell Instantly and Share Listing as alternative ways to sell, while improving the existing listing journey, seller communications and payout management. Through user research, testing and iterative design, I helped shape a more flexible and consistent experience across North America and international markets.
MY ROLE
Product Design Lead and Researcher
TEAM
Product, Engineering, Research, Analytics & Regional Stakeholders
01 / CONTEXT
Ticketmaster's resale experience was traditionally built around a straightforward process: select your tickets, set a price and wait for another fan to purchase them.
But selling tickets isn't always that simple. Some fans need to sell quickly, others prefer to sell directly to someone they know, and some are unable to list their tickets because of event restrictions. Beyond the sale itself, sellers also need clarity around pricing, payment methods and when they'll receive their money.
The challenge was to evolve an established resale experience to support these different needs, without introducing unnecessary complexity into a journey millions of fans were already familiar with.
Original North American Resale Listing Journey
02 / OPPORTUNITY
The existing journey largely assumed fans wanted to list tickets on an open marketplace. Yet their motivations varied depending on their circumstances, the time remaining before an event and the likelihood of finding a buyer.
For some, achieving the best possible price mattered most. Others preferred the certainty of selling immediately, even at a lower price. Some already had a buyer in mind but needed a secure way to complete the transaction through Ticketmaster.
This created an opportunity to introduce alternative selling methods while improving how fans understood their options. The experience needed to balance flexibility with clarity, helping sellers make informed decisions without complicating the process.
Research highlighted the importance of certainty, security and clarity when reselling tickets
03 / ROLE
As a Product Designer within Ticketmaster's Resale team, I worked across the seller journey, from early discovery and concept validation through to interaction design, prototyping and delivery.
I contributed to the development of Sell Instantly and Share Listing, helping shape how both features worked within existing resale journeys and how their value was communicated to fans. A significant part of my involvement focused on user research, testing interactive prototypes across North American and international audiences, identifying usability issues and translating findings into design improvements.
Alongside these initiatives, I worked on listing-flow improvements, global design consolidation, seller communications and the Seller Details Page. I collaborated closely with product managers, researchers, engineers and regional teams to balance user needs with commercial, technical and market-specific requirements.
04 / EVIDENCE
Across multiple rounds of research, I explored how fans interpreted new selling methods, what influenced their choices and where they encountered uncertainty. One recurring finding was that users could successfully complete a task without fully understanding the product or the implications of their decision.
In October 2022, I tested two approaches to presenting an instant offer within the North American resale journey. One displayed the offer with additional details available through an optional modal, while the other introduced a dedicated page explaining the offer before users continued.
Both approaches were considered easy to use, but five of eight participants remained confused about what Sell Instantly actually meant. Only two opened the optional information modal, while all eight found the dedicated price breakdown useful.
The research highlighted the need to explain the transaction more clearly, particularly who was buying the tickets, what fees applied and how payment worked. Simply presenting an attractive offer wasn't enough to establish understanding.
Sell Instantly: Variant A and Variant B User Test Comparison
In February 2023, I tested Share Listing with ten returning Ticketmaster resale users in the UK, asking them to sell a ticket directly to a friend and share the listing through different platforms.
All ten participants rated the initial task easy or very easy, and nine said they would consider using the feature again. However, several confused selling with transferring tickets, while others initially overlooked the social sharing controls.
Further testing in North America later that year revealed similar comprehension challenges. Although all ten participants completed the sharing task, four showed confusion when choosing between Share Listing and Sell Instantly, and three struggled to distinguish the new journey from traditional resale.
Together, these studies validated the usability of the concept while exposing opportunities to make the selling methods more distinct throughout the journey.
UK and North America Share Listing: Validation and Usability Testing
In February 2024, a quantitative study involving 295 Ticketmaster users explored how different messaging approaches influenced their understanding of Share Listing.
Four variations were tested, focusing on listing, security, links and social sharing. Security-led messaging performed strongest in head-to-head comparisons, particularly for clarity, relevance and likelihood to encourage consideration.
The research also highlighted how much fans valued certainty when selling tickets. Many were unsure which tickets were eligible for resale, while selling outside established platforms introduced concerns around safety and legitimacy.
These findings reinforced the importance of communicating the reassurance of selling through Ticketmaster, rather than focusing solely on the mechanics of sharing a link.
05 / KEY DECISIONS & TRADE-OFFS
The research informed how we introduced alternative selling methods without disrupting the established resale journey.
For Sell Instantly, the challenge was balancing speed with transparency. An optional information modal kept the experience shorter, but testing showed that important details could be overlooked. A dedicated offer page provided more room to explain pricing and the transaction, helping users make a more informed decision.
For Share Listing, familiarity presented a different challenge. Reusing the existing listing flow helped participants navigate confidently, but also made it harder to distinguish the new feature from traditional resale. We explored clearer sale-method cards, contextual headings and more explicit actions, including changing the final CTA from Submit Listing to Create Link.
The research also showed that fans approached selling with different priorities. Some valued the certainty of an instant offer, while others preferred retaining control over their asking price. Rather than steering everyone towards one method, the design needed to make these differences understandable and allow sellers to choose what suited them.
06 / SOLUTION
The work evolved across several connected initiatives, introducing alternative selling methods while improving the experience around listing, managing and receiving payment for tickets.
Sell Instantly allowed eligible fans to accept an immediate offer rather than list their tickets on the marketplace and wait for a buyer.
Introducing this option required a clearer explanation of the offer, including the price, applicable fees and what sellers could expect after accepting. Through prototyping and usability testing, I contributed to refining how this information was presented within the existing resale journey.
The feature offered a different kind of value from traditional resale, particularly for sellers approaching an event who preferred certainty over waiting for a potentially higher return.
Sell Instantly: Streamlined journey allowing fans to review and accept an offer for their tickets immediately
Share Listing enabled fans to create a unique link to their tickets and sell directly through messaging, social media or other digital channels.
Sellers could select their tickets, set a price and generate a link to share with potential buyers. They could also return to their listing and share it again if the tickets remained available. Buyers followed the link to review the tickets and complete their purchase through Ticketmaster.
The experience provided a more secure alternative to arranging ticket sales independently, while giving fans another selling option in eligible circumstances where traditional marketplace resale wasn't available.
Share Listing: Direct selling journey enabling fans to create and share a ticket listing through a unique link or via social media
Alongside these new features, I worked on consolidating elements of Ticketmaster's previously separate North American and international resale experiences.
This included aligning listing-flow patterns, refining the pricing experience and updating seller communications to use a shared global design language. The work aimed to reduce inconsistencies between markets while making future improvements easier to deliver and maintain.
The seller experience extended beyond creating a listing, with fans needing a clear way to track, manage and share their tickets.
I enhanced the My Listings page to provide clearer listing information, selling status and management controls. This included integrating Share Listing functionality, allowing fans to open a dedicated modal to copy their unique link or share tickets directly through social channels, without leaving the page.
Enhanced 'My Listings' provides clearer listing details, status and management, with integrated Share Listing functionality
07 / IMPACT
The work helped expand how fans could sell tickets, while improving the experience of managing listings and receiving payments. Across research, product development and global rollout, the initiatives contributed to a more flexible resale ecosystem.
The Seller Details Page gave fans clearer visibility of their payout status and payment methods, while alternative selling methods created new opportunities to complete a sale. Research also helped validate the usability of these experiences and identify where further improvements were needed.
1,828
Tickets sold through Share Listing
Using the Share Listing feature in international markets (exclusing North America) as of March 2024.
10K fewer
Payout-related support contacts
A 3% year-on-year reduction in payout-related enquiries following improvements to the seller experience.
47% → 59%
Sell-through including Sell Instantly
In 2025, Sell Instantly contributed to a 59% overall resale sell-through rate, 12 percentage points higher than marketplace-only selling.
18
International markets using Share Listing
The direct-selling experience was represented across 18 markets, giving eligible fans another way to reach buyers through shared links.
08 / CONCLUSION
Working across Ticketmaster's resale experience highlighted how much uncertainty sits behind a seemingly straightforward task. Fans aren't simply trying to sell a ticket. They're making decisions about price, timing, trust and the likelihood of completing a sale.
The research consistently showed that an experience could be easy to use while still leaving people unsure about what they were agreeing to. This reinforced the importance of clear communication, transparent decisions and understanding the motivations behind different selling behaviours.
The project also strengthened my experience working across a complex global product, balancing new features with established journeys, regional requirements and technical constraints.
Ultimately, the work helped make resale more flexible and understandable, giving fans greater choice and confidence when their plans change.
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